Submitting to Scholastic Art & Writing Contest
Updated November 2023
The Scholastic Art & Writing Contest is one of the most accessible nationwide competitions for creative high school students who focus on art and writing. With 28 categories, 17 categories for the arts and 11 categories for writing, there is a category for almost every form of art. On the visual arts side this includes architecture and industrial design, ceramics, jewelry, animation, short film, as well as the traditional fine arts. On the writing side the categories range from poetry to science fiction to fantasy. So if you are a creative student there is almost certain to be a category for your art. There is no limit to the number of works a student can enter, and students can enter artwork in multiple categories (though each piece can only be entered in one category). They post a comprehensive FAQ to answer most questions you will have.
Visual artists will need good photographs of your artwork. You can take very good photographs with the camera on your phone, use natural light (outdoors on a cloudy day is perfect), taking multiple images to make sure they are in focus and distortion free. Photographs of 3D work can be taken using a contrasting matte poster board surround (use black for light colored work and white for colored and darker work). Next crop them to fill the full frame, the final submissions should have a print resolution of 300dpi. When I've judged the various categories in past years I was saddened by the poorly photographed submissions which we couldn't judge accurately because we just couldn't see them well enough on the slides.
The art work is judged by experts in their fields making the awards a highly regarded accomplishment by college admissions. Work is initially judged by a three judge panel at the regional level and awards include: Gold Key, Silver Key, Honorable Mention, American Visions Nominee, and American Voices Nominee. Regional Gold Key award winners are then considered for the National Awards which are judged by a special panel in New York City in March. The National Awards are Gold Medal, Silver Medal with Distinction, and Silver Medal, as well as many scholarship awards ranging from $500 to $10,000. Regional Senior Portfolio winners also compete for $12,500 Gold Medal Portfolio scholarships and $2,000 Silver Medal with Distinction scholarships.
Submission deadlines for Scholastic vary by region (assigned by zip code) which you can check here. Art and writing deadlines can be different for the same region and vary from early December to early January.